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by Rick
Welch
Hotel Directories Need To Go!
Just think: What if all hotel companies
were to take the money being spent on producing directories and used it on
providing the franchisee with a tool that would provide more room sales?
What a wonderful world we would all live in. Well, the time is now!
No more wasted time and expense to only
have millions of these books end up in the garbage cans of millions of
millions of people. Trees would be saved. The frustration that the
franchiser and the franchisee experience providing the directory information
would be eliminated. Storage rooms in hotels could be returned to storage
rooms again. This is were you find all of the Hotel directories that were
shipped to a hotel for that year.
New franchisees could come online
immediately and not have to wait until the next directory is printed with
their information to expect business.
Wireless E-Commerce and Data Applications
The Hotel Company that provides a
wireless reservation system will dominate the Industry for market share. A
wireless e-commerce platform to interface with its database and with the
franchisees will also eliminate the need to spend additional advertising
money for all of those green newsprint magazines that cost you a small
fortune. Most importantly this expansion will give the company access to new
and potentially very large revenue streams.
Participating franchisers will win the
race for new market share by creating a service that allows customers access
to the Internet by using their cell phones or PDAs. Customers will be able
to check hotel room availability, rates, and make reservations.
The online hotel industry is evolving at
an accelerating pace. The rise of the Internet has hastened the process.
Using the Internet, travelers are able to quickly and easily research,
compare, and purchase hotel rooms.
While this offers convenience for the
customer, it creates an increasingly difficult environment for hotel
franchisers to differentiate themselves from their competitors. As a result,
many customers unable to distinguish one hotel company from another make
their purchase decisions based entirely on price. In fact, according to a
study of online purchases of airline tickets by PhoCusWright, Inc. nearly
40% based their buying decision solely on price. I believe that the number
is even higher today.
More than ever before hotel companies
need to develop innovative customer-focused solutions that will help
differentiate them from their competition.
Using the franchise web site, wireless
Internet customers (estimated total of M*) can chose a hotel along their
route, and directly access a reservation system. Customers select the room
type, options, and rates. They reserve the room over the wireless Internet,
and pay by credit card using the wireless device. This room rate could be
controlled in “Real Time”. You could increase the rate when you wanted to,
and decrease it when market conditions dictate.
The consumer would identify with that
hotel immediately and will get up to the minute information on what
promotions the hotels are running, what improvements the hotel has made, and
even what the “daily special” will be that night in the restaurant.
Information is what the customer wants along with the knowledge that they
are getting the best possible rate available to them. This would eliminate
the need for repeated calls to data control to make changes in your central
reservation script. You could input all the information from the computer in
your office as frequently as needed.
This system will have a process for
real-time hotel room inventory management that works in conjunction with the
company’s database. This inventory management system will be coupled with a
lead-generation technology. Through the franchisers experience, they know
that hotels actually prefer call-ins and walk-ins to bookings generated by
the company reservation systems, because they can exert more control over
their room rates.
Software will be developed capable of
monitoring hotel occupancy levels throughout the day, affording the hotel to
have its rates automatically adjusting according to levels of occupancy.
When a motorist is searching for a lodging at exits ahead, the Franchiser
provides a list of hotels and the lowest rates currently available. The
rates quoted reflect real-time supply/demand dynamics.
There are some markets this does not
apply. This does apply to the majority of the hotels that have a primary
market of transient customers and has to compete with every one on the
Interstate who cuts their rates to try to increase their room sales. Over
70% of all North American hotels are located within a mile radius of
interstate exits, and are generally mid- to low-priced *.
Wireless connectivity also opens a new
marketing strategy for those locations that need to compete with interstate,
downtown, suburban, airport and urban locations, typically used by business
travelers and groups attending meetings. They can now merchandise their
hotels. This new system would enable them to do so when room sales are low
for a specific time period.
Since yield management and lead-time
generation take place in real-time, it is not appropriate to offer the
service for the wired Internet, as the user is not in his car at the time of
use.
The technology for the creation of this
concept is available now. The speed of transmission of this information has
arrived and the company/companies developing this space age marketing tool
will WIN.
* R. Peterson Stayonline.com
Rick Welch is currently
President of the Lakeshore Group a Professional Hospitality Management Company
that specializes in advising members of the legal profession as it relates to
Hospitality Legal matters.
He recently sold a major interest in a hotel that he was a partner in and
reorganized the accounting and management systems for a local Hotel Owner Group.
He has written other Marketing Articles that have been published by HSMAI and
personally supervised forty limited service hotels in the East for a partnership
that was in the process to sell those hotels.
His previous positions included managing seized assets for the United States
Marshal Service, Vice President of Regional Marketing for Day's Inns of America,
Vice President and Brand manager for USFS Best Inns and Suites.
Rick has also excelled as an Asset Manager for a package of $200,000,000.
Hospitality REO for the nations largest Real Estate Investment Trust.
Rick started his career with Sheraton Hotels as a management trainee.
Richard J. Welch, CHA, CHME
President
The Lakeshore Group
2180 Defoors Ferry Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30318
(404) 355-7021
rjwelch11@aol.com
www.thelakeshoregroup.com
(web site under development)
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